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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dealer who wrote (25226)	12/15/2000 8:12:31 AM
From: Dealer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

M O N E Y...S N A P S H O T: Microsoft's woes to weigh on market By Julie Rannazzisi, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 8:00 AM ET Dec 15, 2000 NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Microsoft's profit warning is set to drag down the major averages Friday, as the stock is a component of the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq. March S&P 500 futures fell 4.50 points, or 0.3 percent, and were trading roughly 8.60 points below fair value. Nasdaq futures slipped 45.00 points, or 1.7 percent. Microsoft shares fell $3.25, or nearly 6 percent, to $52.25 in Instinet pre-market dealings. The software titan (MSFT) warned investors late Thursday that it now expects second-quarter earnings to come in the 46 to 47-cent range versus the First Call estimate of 49 cents a share. The software behemoth said the current weakness in worldwide economic conditions is resulting in a slowdown in PC sales, corporate IT spending and consumer online services and advertising. On a positive note, Oracle (ORCL) said it earned 11 cents a share in its second quarter after the close Thursday, beating the First Call estimate by a penny. Shares had not yet traded in the pre-market. The stock closed off 88 cents to $27.50 ahead of the news. In analyst actions, meanwhile, Bear Stearns lowered its ratings on both Sun Microsystems and EMC Corp., citing concerns over spreading economic weakness. Until recently, Sun (SUNW) had held up better than other big-cap tech stocks. But in the latest week, it has seen a heady 26 percent lopped off amid increasing worries that the slowing economy will adversely affect the company's growth outlook. Sun is down a bruising 51 percent from its 52-week high. On the economic front, Friday will see the release of the November consumer price index, seen rising 0.2 percent both overall and at the core. Also due out: industrial production, seen coming in at flat levels in November; and capacity utilization. View Economic Preview, economic calendar and forecasts and historical economic data. Separately, Trim Tabs reported that all equity funds had inflows of $8.4 billion over the five days ending Dec. 13 vs. inflows of $6.5 billion in the prior week. In the Treasury arena, prices rose for a fourth session in a row, with the 10-year Treasury note up 2/32 to yield ($TNX) 5.22 percent while the 30-year government bond added 3/32 to yield ($TYX) 5.435 percent. In the currency market, dollar/yen rose 0.5 percent to 112.45 while euro/dollar gained 0.6 percent to 0.8976, its second straight session of decent advances. The euro reached an intra-day high of 0.9000, a level not seen since Sept. 22 -- the day the European Central Bank, U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan joined together for the first time to prop up the currency.